When it comes to media and entertainment, the world's no match for India

In its annual sector forecast for 2017-2021, PwC said the Indian M&E sector will touch $45.1 billion by 2021, up from $27.3 billion at the end of 2016Gaurav Laghate | ET Bureau | June 08, 2017, 08:48 IST

(Thinkstock Images)India's media and entertainment (M&E) industry is set to grow at a faster pace of 10.55% CAGR, outshining the global average of 4.2% CAGR, according to consulting firm PwC.

In its annual sector forecast for 2017-2021, PwC said the Indian M&E sector will touch $45.1 billion by 2021, up from $27.3 billion at the end of 2016.

In a report, titled Global Entertainment & Media Outlook, PwC predicts that across 54 top countries, which were considered for the report, the M&E sector will grow only at a 4.2% CAGR (compound annual growth rate). Also, for the first time in global markets, the growth of the sector will be lower than the average GDP growth, signalling that in many of these countries the sector is seeing plateauing, according to Frank D’Souza, partner & leader-entertainment & media at PwC India.

“Unlike the global economy, which will see a shrinking contribution from the entertainment and media sector over the outlook period, in India, the sector’s growth rate will outpace the overall GDP growth rate,” D’Souza said. “Being a relatively under-developed market in terms of per capita spend on entertainment and media, will allow India to grow at 10.5% over the next five years.”

As per the report, television advertising in India will continue to hold the larger share of the pie at $5.81 billion in 2021, registering an 11.1% growth from $3.43 billion in 2016. TV subscription revenues are also expected to grow from $8.14 billion to $14.1billion by 2021, clocking 11.6% CAGR.

The report pointed out that though subscriber numbers are still growing, explosive growth levels of the recent past will not be replicated in the future. Incidentally the cable market is approaching a saturation point but will still account for over 55% of the total pay-TV market in 2021.

India is the second-largest subscription TV market in the Asia Pacific region in terms of the number of subscription in TV households, which reached 154.3 million in 2016. This is expected to expand at 1.6% CAGR to reach 166.9 million by 2021.

Bucking the global trend, newspapers are expected to grow from $3.56 billion in 2016 to $3.76 billion in 2021 at a CAGR of 1.1%. Book publishing is projected to grow at 6.1% CAGR over 2017-2021 (to $2.95 billion), whereas magazines are expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.3% for the same period (to $295 million). The report points out that the growth rate is tailing off in newspapers as the effects of digital disruption begin to be felt in a market that had long enjoyed print expansion.

Growth for digital advertising is projected to be the fastest at a CAGR of 18.6% to $1.73 billion by 2021, up from the estimated $740 million in 2016, whereas for Internet video, the CAGR is higher at 22.4% albeit at a lower base of $239 million.

Radio is projected to witness the fastest growth among the traditional media at 14.7% CAGR over 2021 to reach $826 million, as against $416 million in 2016.

The Indian film industry is expected to experience a strong growth to become the third largest cinema market, after the US and China by 2021, growing at a CAGR of 10.4%.